1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a granular polymer composite and a production process thereof as well as a diagnostic agent using the composite and a production process thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a granular polymer composite which is useful as an adsorbent, deodorizing agent, filler for a chromatographic column and others, and a production process of such polymer composites. The present invention also relates to a diagnostic agent using the polymer composite which is useful in the diagnostic procedures for a number of infectious diseases, and a production process of such types of diagnostic agents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since they have a high adsorptivity of various substances such as viruses, bacteria, animal and plant cells, proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, odor components and the like, calcium phosphate compounds, especially hydroxyapatite, are widely used as an adsorbent, deodorizing agent or filler for a chromatographic column, for example.
In medical or clinical practice, diagnostic procedures utilizing an antigen-antibody reaction including, for example, the gel-diffusion method, radioimmunoassay and precipitation tests have been well-known and have been widely used in the detection of various infectious diseases.
Further, in recent years, immobilization procedures in which an antigen or antibody is bonded to an inert carrier to prepare an immobilized antigen or antibody, and then the immobilized antigen or antibody is in contact with a specimen to be detected to evaluate an antigen-antibody reaction of the specimen have been reported in many papers. In these immobilization procedures, if viruses or bacteria are directly used, the carrier simultaneously used must be selected from a group of materials which do not damage or kill the viruses or bacteria immobilized on the carrier. A typical example of the carrier material widely used in prior art immobilization procedures is a gel of polyacrylamide which can undesirably damage the viruses or bacteria because of chemical substances such as monomers, polymerization initiators and the like contained in the gel.
Furthermore, some examples using polystyrene, latex or particulate carriers such as beads or microcapsules in the detection of antigen-antibody reaction have been reported in papers. However, use of such carriers involves problems to be solved with regard to a stable immobilization of antigens or antibodies as well as reproducibility and reliability of the detection.